[Deck] Merfolk

[Mantis]

I dont really like courrier. Its so slow in my eyes and if you actually play it ur throwing ur counters on the bottom of your library. I'm going to test ponder and tidal warrior. Anyone comments? Im going to figgure out a nice sideboard later

~Maarten

Please, just think about the bolded statement for a second. The only thing it does is thin your deck, so there will be less Merfolk and more counters for you to draw (not that this matters due to lack of shuffle effects but just for illustration). So you won't draw less counters, that makes no sense, you will even draw more in the very long run.

[Piceli89]

How about "Chain of Vapor" ?

Ok, you can say it's risky to get your Vial bounced but it could fit well in the LD/mana disruption plan ???

Play chain of vapor and risk to get one of your win-cons bounced while you need to remove a blocker and beat with a merfolk ? Echoing truth /RRiver solves this problem greatly, chain of vapor is antisynergic as hell in a deck which packs creatures as win conditions. Leave it in ichorid , or in Storm decks.

[Illissius]

This build just won an 88 player tournament:

4 Aether Vial
4 Cursecatcher
4 Tidal Warrior
2 Manta Riders
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Standstill
2 Echoing Truth
3 Mutavault
3 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port
11 Island
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Mind Harness
SB: 3 Hydroblast
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Rebuild

Looks pretty iffy to me, but hey, it won.

[Luca_Girolami]

First of all, this is my first post.
I'm italian. As far as I can tell, my English level is the worst you've ever seen. My apologize in advance.

I played Merfolk in Standard for a few days: enough to remember that I don't like Standard anymore but that I still like Merfolk and the "Fish" decks they can form!

So I started to build this deck. I like it. It will be my "main" deck, I'm quite sure.

This is my take:

Creatures (22)
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecacther
3 Tidal Courier
3 Tideshaper Mystic

Spells (19)
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Standstill
3 Aether Vial
4 Stifle

Lands (19)
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
3 Rishadan Port
9 Island

Sideboard (15)
3 Relic of the Progenitus
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Wipe Away
4 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydroblast
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall

I think's that's a lot to fix, expecially in sideboard. Main is ok for the moment. My only few doubts are:
- Standstill: maybe Brainstorm could be a better choice?
- Tideshaper Mystic: It isn't always necessary, so two are enough? (-1 Tideshaper +1 Tidal Courier?)
- Something to take out to make room for the fourth Vial.

Hope this can help!
Hope you can help!

[Piceli89]

Ciao Luca (son italiano anche io),
I 've brought merfolks to some tourneys and i think i can give you some advices. It's always good to see that someone picks up merfolks.
First, aether vial is an absolute 4-ofs. It wins games alone if cast in the early turns , so you want to see it as soon as possible.
Tideshaper mystic is shit, there's another merfolk which works in a greater way and its name is tidal warrior.
Tidal courier is quite crappy, since merfolks does not haave the same goblins/elves speed, so you wont' be able to vial/cast it before the 4th turn ( excluding dazes), and revealing 2-3 merfolks ( on average) won't be as "fast-advantaging" as with the aforementioned tribes.
Lord, Adept and reejereys are all 4-ofs.
Wake thrasher is a must include, you could also run 4 of them, but since it's a 3 drop and it's quite poor in defending, i owould say 3 is the right quantity. It's the merfolks which allows o increase consistently the damage race.
daze, force and possibly stifle are a must, all in the full set.
For the mutavaults, well there are several ways of thought about this card, iìm still not fully convinved by it, but it seems to be great in (almost) every tribal deck.
If you'll join tourneys in the area of Milan we'll probably meet..

[Luca_Girolami]

Thanks man! Your comment is very useful! I'll soon post an updated list.

[johanessen]

This build just won an 88 player tournament:

4 Aether Vial
4 Cursecatcher
4 Tidal Warrior
2 Manta Riders
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Standstill
2 Echoing Truth
3 Mutavault
3 Wasteland
2 Rishadan Port
11 Island
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Mind Harness
SB: 3 Hydroblast
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Echoing Truth
SB: 1 Rebuild

Looks pretty iffy to me, but hey, it won.

This deck won a 35player tournament on sunday. They are quite similar
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=21768


Mainboard:
12 Island
4 Cursecatcher
4 Daze
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Wasteland
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
4 Aether Vial
3 Mutavault
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Standstill
2 Tidal Warrior
2 Rishadan Port

# 60

Sideboard:
3 Back to Basics
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Relic of Progenitus

# 15

[kicks_422]

Just 2 Wake Thrashers? Aren't they the Merfolk Piledrivers?

[Cabal-kun]

Two Ports? Two Tidal Warriors?

You either go with the mana denial strategy, or you don't. Don't half-ass it with two-ofs. Sure, it won. But unless it does so repeatedly, it's nothing more than an anomaly.

[Luca_Girolami]

Working around your comments and posts, and after some searches around the net, I came up with this:

Creatures (21)
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecacther
3 Tidal Warrior
2 Wake Thrasher

Spells (20)
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Standstill
4 Aether Vial
4 Stifle

Lands (19)
4 Wasteland
3 Mutavault
3 Rishadan Port
9 Island

Sideboard (15)
3 Relic of the Progenitus
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Wipe Away
4 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydroblast
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall

I figured out that the structure was ok. After a few test I felt the lack of Wake Thresher and I saw how "heavy" is Tidal Courier.

Now it's time to watch at sideboard. Any comment?

[Piceli89]

Wipe away isn't that great choice for an aggro-control deck, i'd go -3 wipe away and +3 echoing truth ; furthermore, i'd even consider to put them MAINDECK because merfolks monoblue version don't have any removal.
Other sourcers previously suggested adding rushing river, but i somehow doubt about its speed, being a 3- cost card and requiring sometimes to pay the kicker cost ( which may seem to be little -disadvantage, but a land in an aggro control deck is alqays fundamental).
For the rest, I like the sideboard, it's quite balacned for facing the critical Mus. Perhaps i would try Divert , to use against black based decks and similars as rock, eva green...
Wake thrasher should be in 3x in the maindeck, Imho.

[johanessen]

Two Ports? Two Tidal Warriors?

You either go with the mana denial strategy, or you don't. Don't half-ass it with two-ofs. Sure, it won. But unless it does so repeatedly, it's nothing more than an anomaly.

New top, 67 players

1st - Aleix Dosta - Merfolks

Maindeck:
11 Island
3 Mutavault
2 Rishadan Port
3 Wasteland
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Tidal Warrior
2 Wake Thrasher
4 Æther Vial
3 Daze
2 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill

Sideboard:
4 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Echoing Truth
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Mind Harness
2 Pithing Needle
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Umezawa's Jitte

http://www.lamaquinadeltemps.com/for...ad.php?tid=783

[Piceli89]

Wow, that lists appear as a bit .."odd" to me (it seems to be more oriented toward a "blue goblins" philosophy with that huge amount of merfolks.. and the black sygg is surely unusual), but it got 1st in a 67-men tourney, so maximum respect.

EDIT: hey guys, i got a bit on deckcheck and merfolks are really kicking asses ! 22 decks , with the last 2 having reached the first position in 2 big tourneys !! OMFG this deck will become the next tier1, I always felt it, and now i'm quite confidant.
Just a thing, i noticed that the more recent lists are playing mutavaults instead of wasteland#4 and/or 1-2 ports. Has anyone tested if the 'vaults are worth this change ?

[ssilver]

Piloting a Merfolk deck, I often wish I had after-wrath affects besides FOW, and some more stuff to sit under standstill (AfterWrath now available in stores near you!). Course if you have the mana denial that doesnt really matter...

[Cabal-kun]

Just a thing, i noticed that the more recent lists are playing mutavaults instead of wasteland#4 and/or 1-2 ports. Has anyone tested if the 'vaults are worth this change ?

Again, I'll say that with Wasteland and Ports, you either want 4 or none. Don't half wing it with mana denial cards.

And yes, Mutavault is very worthwhile. I'm surprised that people haven't picked up on it sooner. The cost of making your mana base a little more vulnerable is worth being able to win games against control decks by saving a Lord of Atlantis in your hand, Vialing it EOT after they clear the board, and then swinging with Islandwalking* and pumped Mutavaults, or just pumped Mutavaults.

Edit: You can point out how many decks are doing well with that 2-3 setup, but that doesn't mean that's the reason. You could stick 2 Apocalypse Chimes in Thresh and still win +50 people tournaments. Does that mean the Chimes suddenly made your deck nuts? Really now. It's more the power of the rest of the deck shoring up a poor mana denial suite then the other way around.

[FredMaster]

Again, I'll say that with Wasteland and Ports, you either want 4 or none. Don't half wing it with mana denial cards.

You can say that as many times as you wish, but still it isn't true. You are screwing up your manabase. If you are stuck with no or just one Island in the early game, it can endanger your aggressive plan. Therefore I play 4 Waste and 2 Ports - and no Vaults.

[elof]

Hi all!

I'm new to the forum and from sweden so please, don't hold that against me.

Okej, I spent most of my yesterday playing Merfolks on mws against different decks. The overall result was positive but I have a few things that I like to discuss. For reference, here is the list I played:

Merfolks: (24)
1cc: (7)
4 Cursecatcher
3 Tidal Warrior

2cc: (10)
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat

3cc: (7)
4 Merrow Reejerey
3 Wake Thrasher

Spells: (16)
1cc: (4+7 = 11)
4 Aether Vial

2cc: (8+10 = 18)
4 Standstill
4 Daze

5cc: (4)
4 Force of Will

Lands: (20)
12 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland

Statistic:
Total castingcost/card: 1.467
Excluding FoW: 1.13


SB:
2 Echoing Truth
4 Hydroblast
4 Relic of Progenitius
2 Hurkyls Recall
3 Stifle




As you can see, I'm currently testing out Sygg. I was very critical to him at first but he does every once in a while happend to draw a card or two. Not sure he is the pick to make though. I have tried out Echoing Truth but found them lacking since I ran into Chalice for 2. It doesn't happen that often but still. The other bounces that are avaliable is not that good I think. Both Wipe Away and Rushing River are expensive to play, and sometimes you just want an EOT bounce to get rid of Aether Vial/a creature to make sure you can cast Standstill. And not to speak of the horrible Dreadnoughts, that however can be outraced (apperntly! this deck is sick sometimes) but it is pretty hard to do on turn 2-4.

Sygg does however answer a diffrent need and that is that he is quite a good blocker because he is a 1/3 and more often 2/4 so he holds of the most creatures in the game. Our creatures are pretty small until we have alot of lords in play and because Lord of Atlantis dosen't have islandwalk himself, he often stays at home and does nothing (of course, with 2 lords in play he has Islandwalk). It would really be nice with a flash merfolk to add to the deck, so that Merrow can tap creatures in your opponents turn. Also, playing Sygg, I put in an extra 1cc critter in order to deal more damage early so Sygg can draw cards.

Wake Thrasher is huge sometimes and at other times he is really weak. I wonder if I should cut one in order to lower the manacost of the deck. However he is good at punishing decks that become manascrewed early but mostly he just runs into a wall and becomes chumpblocked. This does however quite often leads to the fact that the rest of your critters can attack because your opponent has to block Wake. While 4 is to much, is 2 to less?

Also, I havn't quite decided on how the manabase should look. I tried out Rishadan Ports but didn't like what I saw since they consume alot of your mana. Usually when you have port you want to slow down your opponent while you build up your army but whitout vial this is really hard to do. They are good under Standstills but so are Mutavaults too. I wonder what you guys feel about it? Should we go for full on the manadisruption plan or not?

Stifles maindeck should also get a note. To often I find myself in a situation where I go first and have Stifle, Island and Vial. Most of the times I play Vial but I have tried to go for Land go and of course everytime my opponent plays around me. He plays basic or Fetch and I'm locked under my own Stifle. How do you guys play your Stifels?

Finally, the SB is a mess! I'm not sure what I want there, but between all Plauges, Vials and other massremoval, I really think that Stifle/Needels and bounce are necessary. But the question I ask is, does it help or does it postpone the inevadible? The thought I had on Stifle is that it counters alot of mass removals EE/Deed, and even Wasteland on your Mutavaults and it can also take out your opponents fetches, witch is highly effective on the play. Anyway, I need to playtest the SB alot more before I can say anything more conclusive about it. Now I have just put it together from alot of lists from deckcheck. Propagandas where in a few and I don't think they are necessary unless it's alot of Ichorid and Goblins present.



Anyway, AWESOME deck that has gotten alot of really good results in the past weeks! Keep it up!

/
elof

[MANMAN]

So...what's the general opinion of Tidal Courier? I've heard some arguments for and against him. He seems really powerful in a deck with a high merfolk count, but those decks seem less effective against the field due to the low disruption spell count. Is Standstill better?

[Piceli89]

So...what's the general opinion of Tidal Courier? I've heard some arguments for and against him. He seems really powerful in a deck with a high merfolk count, but those decks seem less effective against the field due to the low disruption spell count. Is Standstill better?

Absolutely, it is no brainer. Standstill gives 3 cards with certainy and works well with mutavaults and vial (which is the core of the deck), courie costs tons of mana, has a sucking body, needs centuries to be vialed and on average resolves giving 1-2 merfolks only. Wow.

[MANMAN]

True, but in a deck with a high merfolk count, wouldn't the Tidal Courier be just as, if not more. Also, don't forget that the Courier allows you to use Reejery tricks.

Upon further thinking, I guess it just depends on how you designed your deck.

Creature heavy (probably with Banneret) I would play Courier
Spell heavy I would play Standstill